LEAD
Action News vol 7 no 1, 1999, ISSN
1324-6011
Incorporating Lead Aware Times ( ISSN 1440-4966) and Lead Advisory Service News ( ISSN 1440-0561)
The journal of The LEAD (Lead Education and Abatement Design) Group Inc.

By Claus
Geissmar, reprinted from the Daily Telegraph,
Sydney, Australia,17th February 1999.

Thousands of Beethovens mourners
escorted his remains to their burial place in Vienna in 1827, and to a man they all
believed the 50 year old, dear musical genius had died of liver disease and dropsy. Now, scientists at
a Chicago research institute have found out the truth: Danube river fish killed him.

The fish caught in what was then a particularly heavily polluted
stretch of the scenic river, were one of Beethovens favourite dishes  and they
were heavily contaminated with lead.

Chicago researchers made their discovery while examining a 15cm long
hair of the composers which let them draw conclusions about Beethovens DNA
structure.

Rumours about the reasons for Beethovens death started making the
rounds shortly after his burial.

His secretary caused a sensation by claiming that medical quacks had
killed the composer. He mentioned morphium and arsenic as the causes of death.

The official explanation has always been that he died of a liver
infection  but that was just an official description of his symptoms, not a
statement of cause of death.

That all turns out to have been pure speculation. Based on their DNA
analysis of the hair, scientists have been able to reach very precise conclusions about
the chemical make up of Beethovens body in his last six months of life.

No indications of morphium were present and only minimal traces of
arsenic were found, which probably came from his living room carpet. Carpets of that era
usually used a glue that contained arsenic.

Music researchers know that the young Beethoven was a lively man, who
spent nearly all his free time in the country.

Unhappily for him, fish from the Danube were his favourite food.
Ultimately, the fish avenged themselves by introducing the lead poison that finally killed
him as he ate them.

Industrial historians have established that in the early 19th century, at
the start of the industrial revolution, heavy metals  lead among them  were
dumped in the Danube or on its banks.